This past weekend, I, along with several hundred thousand other Texas deer hunters, headed to our blinds to either to kill a deer or just escape everyday life. I’m not sure about the rest of the state, but in the hill country the hunting was tough. There are so many live oak and post oak acorns lying on the ground that most of the deer I saw didn’t even stop. They just walked right past my deer blind and feeder and kept traveling. That being said, I’m not complaining about what the deer are doing or not doing, I’m complaining about daylight savings time changing on thesame weekend as the start of deer season.

I’m sure many of you have debated back and forth about whether we should observe daylight saving time or stayon standard time. I’m sure many of you will agree with me that this is a stupid question! We don’t care if we stay on daylight saving time or standard time, but let’s stick to one or the other. For most of us it’s not difficult to change our clocks and watches forwards or backwards but when you start hunting on Saturday, using daylight saving and then on Sunday it switches to standard time, it can get a little confusing, especially if some of the guys have a beer or two or maybe six pack by the time they go to bed. Of course, we are all familiar with the old saying Fall backwardsand Spring forward and how to set our clocks, but confusion starts when they try and figure out how to set the cornfeeders. Most feeders are set for 7 a.m., when the sun comes up, which means you need to get up around 5:30 or 6 a.m., depending how fast or slow you are to get ready to go. But, if you move the time back, now the feeder is goingoff at 6 a.m., which means the hunters will have to get up at 4:30 or 5 a.m. to make it to the stand. Now I don’t know about you, but for those that may have partied a little too much on Saturday night…a 4:30 a.m. wakeup call is not funat all.

Deer hunting in Texas is a big deal! In fact, it is so important that if you look at our previous cattle sales calendar,you will notice there aren’t any sales scheduled for the first weekend of November. There will be sales, but they are in other states, not Texas. So why don’t they move this change of time to the last weekend in October? Because that would mean that the trick or treaters will be out on the streets when it’s already dark. What about the secondweekend in November…that’s a good idea. Or better yet, why don’t we stop switching the time change all together!

Since 2018, nearly all states have passed or entertained legislation that would drop the twice-a-year time shift.Nineteen states have passed laws or resolutions in support of year-round daylight-saving time. But get this, nothing can change until Congress addresses a 1960’s era law blocking this from happening. States such asArizona and Hawaii have chosen to keep year-round standard time but without Congress’ approval, the states can’t choose to keep daylight saving time.

So, for now, we will have to keep going forward and backward with the way we keep our time but all I know is my mind and body are totally confused. I know I will eventually get accustomed to this new time and knowing me, it’sprobably going to be the week before March 10^th, which is when daylight saving time returns.